Chuck Yeager

Overview 

Chuck Yeager was born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 as an airplane mechanic and went on to train as a fighter pilot. During World War II, he was shot down over German-occupied France in 1944 and escaped with help from French Resistance fighters. He then returned to combat and shot down 13 enemy planes, five of them in a single day. After the war, he became a test pilot. On October 14, 1947, he flew the rocket-powered Bell X-1, which he named Glamorous Glennis after his wife, to 1.06 times the speed of sound (Mach 1.06), becoming the first person to fly faster than sound. He had broken a couple of ribs falling off a horse a few days before, so engineer and pilot Jack Ridley gave him a short broomstick to help him close the hatch. Yeager later flew more than twice the speed of sound, became a brigadier general, and retired from the Air Force in 1975. He died in 2020 at age 97.

Why He Matters: 

Yeager’s flight proved that a piloted airplane could fly faster than sound and come back safely, opening the door to the supersonic jets that followed. Test pilots like him help engineers improve aircraft by carefully pushing them to their limits and reporting exactly what happens. His career also shows that you can start in one job, like fixing airplanes, and work your way up to flying some of the most advanced aircraft in the world. He reminds students that science, courage, and careful preparation can take us beyond old limits.